Overview – Crisis in de Church
Supplying Jurisdiction in the Present Times
of the Prolonged Vacancy of the Apostolic See
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Certainty
- Status quaestionis
- The Plan
- The Matter of the Chapters
- Conclusion
- Introduction
Dear faithful,
This study was requested of me by my superior, and holy obedience has therefore set me to work.
But apart from that, I am very motivated by this project because its subject determines my life and my eternity, and I imagine that it is also the case for many other persons, true faithful of Our Lord Jesus Christ and sons of His Church. However small she has become in these times of apostasy, we continue to believe in Him and in Her:
“I believe … in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord.
I believe … in the holy Catholic Church”
(Taken from the Apostles’ Creed, as it was and is universally recited in the Catholic Church.)
Indeed, we are at war (“I will put enmities between thee and the Woman” cf. Gn 3, 15) and we are “an army drawn up in battle array” (“the Church Militant”, cfr. Roman Catechism). To defeat an enemy who is not only the devils but also their supporters on earth, a good strategy and effective tactics are necessarily required. One of the indispensable conditions for victory – and total victory over all our enemies is promised to us “the Woman shall crush thy head” (cfr. Gn 3, 15) – is to know one’s enemies and one’s friends. One’s friends, in order to coordinate our efforts, and one’s enemies, in order to be aware of their strengths and their weaknesses: their strengths to organise sufficient resistance to stop and annihilate them, their weaknesses to know where to strike them successfully. All with the grace of God, without which we can do nothing (“without Me you can do nothing” cf. the Gospel).
While being deeply convinced that God permits evil for the sake of a greater good, we wish to know evil sufficiently to neutralise it, and good in order to accomplish it, still with His grace.
This is the motive and the goal of this study on the jurisdiction of the present Church. In doing this we intend to do nothing other than His Holy Will, under the reign of the King and Queen of the heavenly armies.
- Certainty
In order to avoid falling into interminable opinions that would risk dividing us further, in a context of uncertainty and a crisis without apparent solution, I limit myself strictly to what belongs to the faith, to the deposit of the faith, to the definitions of the infallible Magisterium, to dogmas, to the unanimity of the Fathers of the Church and to the common doctrine of authors of weight – in short, to certainties – relying on the promise of Our Lord Jesus Christ:
“Seek and you shall find”
Gospel according to Saint Matthew 7, 7 and Saint Luke 11, 9.
I shall necessarily proceed step by step because the subject is very vast.
If it is inevitable to appeal to opinions for lack of certainty, I shall clearly indicate that they are only opinions.
- Status quaestionis
The general itinerary will be the following:
To establish the necessity and the right to supplying jurisdiction, it is fitting to demonstrate the existence of a present situation that renders recourse to the non-existent ordinary jurisdiction impossible, as well as the necessity of having a jurisdiction, an indispensable government for this perfect, indefectible and immortal society that is the Church.
This situation is none other than an unprecedented crisis in the history of the Church, provoked by the defection of the papacy on account of the public heresies of Paul VI (and according to some, of John XXIII).
The deep causes of this present crisis, from 1964 to our days, reside in a secular infiltration of the worst enemies of the Church, who have succeeded in carrying out a total usurpation of the highest power, secretly and carefully effected within the Church. These latter have progressively replaced the Church with another that resembles her, but which is a masterful falsification.
Meanwhile, of course, the true Church, though composed of a small number of faithful, miraculously continues her existence and her necessary and useful functions, by the will of God to continue the redemption of men until the end of time. I write “miraculously”, in the sense that, humanly speaking, the Church is lost, for she is reduced to extremities in which she cannot survive without the help of God.
- The Plan
The itinerary will follow a development according to clearly established truths or facts. Roughly, the progression will be as follows:
4.1. The Church is a visible, perfect society, necessarily governed by legitimate authority.
The Church, founded by Christ, is a supernatural but real society, composed of men (souls and bodies), and consequently necessarily ruled by a visible authority capable of acting. Like every perfect society, she must have a government in order to subsist and fulfil her end by using her means: to lead souls to eternal salvation by the means of the grace developed by her Founder, Our Lord Jesus Christ.
4.2. The Roman Pontiff can lose his office by public and notorious heresy.
According to several of the greatest Doctors, the pope can fall into manifest heresy and thereby ipso facto cease from his office. For he who is no longer a member of the Church cannot be her head. Consequently, the ordinary jurisdiction attached to the papacy, and transmitted by it, also ceases.
4.3. In the prolonged vacancy, the Church or Christ supplies jurisdiction.
In case of necessity for the salvation of souls, the Church (by her law or by equity) or Christ (as Head) supplies jurisdiction, but always according to the limited principles of law and moral theology.
The indefectibility promised to the Church forbids that she remain without government. Divine Providence watches over the execution of the divine promises. If the normal, visible, and official organs are neutralised by usurpation or apostasy, then God supplies, directly or through His Church, communicating in an extraordinary and immediate manner the jurisdiction necessary for the survival and functioning of the Church Militant to members who are capable and worthy to exercise this charge licitly. We shall see the validity of the sacrament of Order and the liceity of the subjects of supplying jurisdiction.
4.4. The Catholic bishops exercise supplying jurisdiction for the common good.
This supplied jurisdiction is not a human invention, but an effect of the promise of Christ who remains with His Church until the consummation of the ages. It is exercised by the bishops who have remained faithful to the Catholic faith, assisted by their priests, so that the sacraments may be administered validly and licitly, and that the Magisterium may continue to be exercised for the sanctification of souls. Indeed these Catholic bishops validly consecrated can perform certain acts necessary for the common good of the Church, within the limits imposed by necessity, the faith and divine law.
4.5. The Papacy is a divine institution.
This situation obliges us to study whether, and under what conditions, the Catholic bishops can or must contribute to a legitimate papal election, notably in the line of an imperfect general council.
It will be necessary to distinguish: the right of necessity, the moral convocation of the bishops, the representation of the teaching Church, conditions of visibility, moral certainty, peaceful universal acceptance.
Because the Church must have a visible head, according to authors of weight, the papacy being of divine institution, this supplying jurisdiction also confers the right and duty, in due time and according to the required conditions, to proceed to the election of a true pope. Thus is realised the providential design of restoring the visibility of unity and the fullness of hierarchical authority.
4.6. The College of the Apostles (of the Bishops) as the organ of authority.
Meanwhile the highest hierarchical subject after the Roman Pontiff, insofar as it represents morally the Catholic episcopate and the highest administrative organ in the Church in time of vacancy of the Apostolic See, is the College of the Bishops. Practically it is exercised by the councils of all the bishops or at least by a morally representative assembly of the Catholic bishops (of course: validly consecrated and entirely “orthodox”, that is to say right in the faith).
As long as this college (and these councils) is not organised and therefore does not function, it is necessary to descend one step lower, that is to say, each individual bishop in his possibilities, or a few bishops collaborating together. It is they who, in this prolonged time of vacancy of the papal see, realise the government of the Church with their priests, in this sense that each bishop and priest can and must, to the measure of the necessity and of his sacramental and doctrinal competence, contribute to the help of souls and to the common good of the Church.
- The Matter of the Chapters
Since the Church is indefectible by the divine promise and assistance, she continues to exist, but at present with few members. As a human society, she can exist only by a government, and since she is perfect because divine, this government must function with authority and force, effectively. This is called supplying or replacement jurisdiction.
Given that all the official organs and structures have been corrupted by infiltration of enemies and by heresies, this jurisdiction is of immediate, extraordinary and divine origin and nature.
This jurisdiction or supplying is said to be “immediate” in the sense that it does not proceed from a current delegation of a human superior (the pope), but from the divine assistance promised to the Church and from the application of her own laws in the case of vacancy of the Apostolic See.
Our clergy, bishops and priests need this jurisdiction in order to be able to function and to care for their flock as “good shepherds”, and we, true members of this clergy of the Church, must be able to prove to hesitating or perplexed confreres and to our faithful that it exists and that it is legitimate. Hence this study.
It will be necessary to demonstrate the heresies of a recent pope and to establish that these have brought about the cessation of his office.
Then it will be fitting to explain the functioning of this supplying jurisdiction and its extent.
Finally, it will be necessary to propose a solution to exit this crisis as quickly as possible, for “there is no salvation outside the Church”, for the salvation of eight billion souls living on earth at present, for whom Our Lord Jesus Christ has shed His Precious Blood, as well as for the help of the innumerable souls in Purgatory who await our suffrages.
To exit this crisis as quickly as possible – that is the most important challenge and the most necessary work on the planet.
- Conclusion
Supplying jurisdiction is not a human invention or self-declaration but a true and necessary divine succour, fruit of God’s fidelity to His promises. It guarantees the continuity of the Church as a hierarchically constituted society, despite modern apostasy and usurpation.
In the final analysis, this jurisdiction has only one finality: the sanctification of souls and the glory of God. It manifests that, even in the most extreme trial, the Church cannot disappear nor be reduced to impotence.
“I believe … in the holy Catholic Church”!
Thus, confident in divine Providence, we await with hope the day when a true successor of Saint Peter will be given to the Church, rendering fully visible her unity and her strength, for the salvation of the greatest number of souls.
Let us pray without ceasing for the flourishing of the Church, the Mystical Body of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Eric Jacqmin+
Priest of the Catholic Church
I submit in advance to the definitive judgment of the Church on all my writings.
“Roma locuta, causa finita”